Thursday, 16 August 2012

The Road to Pakistan

Partition: I include this reflection on partition and the emergence of Pakistan. It draws on the points that were made in the previous posting. Importantly it argues that the reasons for Pakistan were less to do with religion itself, but the preservation of the privileges of a narrow band of landed aristocrats.

Before the 1940s, the membership of Muslim League was solely comprised of non-practicing
Muslim landed aristocracy. They had enjoyed fruits of British
colonialism, who had bestowed upon them fiefdoms on which they had
lorded over. They never wanted Independence from British, whom they
considered taller, fairer and worthier rulers. Indeed, Muslim League
consistently opposed India's independence, never took part in any
agitation, or launched any significant mass movement. They were very
comfortable with the status-quo.

The arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi changed everything. He transformed the
independence movement from a debating society to a mass mobilization. He
injected his own brand of socialism into the movement. This scared the
the Muslim as well as Hindu zamindars. They knew that if British
left, their titles will be abolished and land distributed amongst the
poor farmers on whom they had preyed upon in the past. The Hindu feudals
were complete marginalized by the Congress. However, the non-practicing
Muslim feudals launched the movement for Pakistan.

Aside from the landed aristocracy, until 1940s, the
majority of Indian Muslims as well as Muslim scholars opposed the
creation of Pakistan. . They opposed Pakistan Movement not because
they supported secularism. On the contrary, they opposed it because they
genuinely believed that the Pakistan's creation would hurt their
long-term objective of spreading Islam in India through Da'wah. Even Maulana Maududi objected to Pakistan. Nevertheless, after the Pakistan movement gained momentum, the majority of Muslims voted for the Muslim League led by MohammadAli Jinnah whose slogan was 'Pakistan ka matlab kya. La ilaha illallah' over the Congress Party which was under the leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.

Pakistan's creation was thus an accident of history. As I
explained above, the Muslim aristocracy was afraid of losing their
undeserved wealth, so they demanded disproportional
representation for Muslims, in the legislative assemblies to preserve
their privileges, anticipating that the illiterate, poor Muslim masses
would be easily manipulated by the use of religious rhetoric. Thus,
Pakistan Movement was meant as a bargaining chip, they had no intention
of going through with it. There was no actual partition or
post-partition plan. Indian National Congress called Muslim League's
bluff. Jinnah called for Direct Action Day in August 1946 as a show of
strength of Muslims. Wide-spread communal riots first in Bengal then in
other parts of India followed. From that day onwards, because of the
hatred that ensued, Pakistan was fait accompali. The partition
was ensured whether Muslim League leaders wanted it or not.

This lack of planning is
the reason why Pakistan has stumbled from one political crisis to
another since its inception, and it took almost 10 years to frame
Pakistani constitution (which would later be mutilated multiple times).
And, unlike India, no land redistribution took place in Pakistan. The
secular non-practicing Muslim aristocrats have new fiefdoms to lord over
in Pakistan.
Indeed on his deathbed Mr. Jinnah admitted that he had committed a great blunder by creating a "mutilated, moth-eaten" Pakistan.